Non-essential shops to open till 9pm in Punjab

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Monday announced some relaxations in the lockdown in urban areas, including opening of non-essential shops on Saturdays and extending their timing from Monday to Saturday till 9pm. Night curfew will be in place in all cities/ towns from 9.30pm to 5am, according to the latest decision.
According to the revised decision, which came following suggestions from Congress MLAs, hotels and restaurants will be allowed to remain open on all days, including Sundays, till 9pm, after which home delivery of food will be allowed.
The revised guidelines also allow aligning the opening of non-essential shops in Mohali with the rest of Tricity, Chandigarh and Panchkula.
The decisions were announced by Amarinder during his second round of virtual meeting with the Punjab Congress MLAs to discuss the Covid situation. He told the meeting that Dr K K Talwar, who heads the state government’s expert group on Covid, had advised relaxing the curbs with due precautions.
Responding to the complaints of shopkeepers getting inflated bills even though their shops had remained closed for a long duration, Amarinder directed the electricity department to not charge bills on the average of the previous year, but to send actual bills.
Amarinder also announced cash compensation of Rs 1,500 for construction workers, who test positive or whose immediate family has tested positive and they have to be quarantined. He asked the MLAs to take the lead in distribution of free food packets to poor patients, who have tested positive to enable them to have enough ration at least for 7-10 days during home isolation.
Amarinder also directed the MLAs and ministers to aggressively counter the negative propaganda being spread by certain anti-social elements and AAP on Covid-19 testing and organ harvesting. He urged them to reach out to people in their constituencies through workers, sarpanches etc, and in fact, rope in the sarpanches to lead by example and persuade people to follow all health protocols strictly.